12/27/97

To the Editor:

I found the article by Laura McNeal about Critical Mass 
("Bicyclists Do Tend to Be Like Cattle," Dec. 24, 1997)
misleading and unfair. To refer to participants in Critical Mass 
as "cattle like" is an insult. Even if this quote was taken from a 
participant, to use it as the title of the article itself reveals 
an obvious bias, and shows the author did not approach this issue 
in a fair minded way. Lauren Howard, the source of the quote, herself 
told me it was taken out of context.

Critical Mass participants are not "cattle." They are people like most
of us: concerned about the deterioration of the urban environment we
all share. Unlike most, though, they have courageously chosen to do
something about it. By joining together once a month and biking en
masse, they are demonstrating a positive alternative to gridlock,
urban sprawl, and other urban maladies induced by excessive dependence
on the single passenger automobile.

Although Ms. McNeal does quote some participants (in a pejorative 
fashion), she spends the first third of her article characterizing
Critical Mass as a "two-wheeled riot." This largely undoes the token
voice she allows to participants. In short, she has written a hatchet
job.

I could refute each of the unfair characterizations she makes point
for point, but I will forbear for fear of tiring the readers of this
letter. Suffice it to say that most Critical Mass rides have been 
largely law abiding and peaceful, and that the ride of last July in 
San Francisco was an aberration, spoiled by a few rotten apples, both 
motorbound and "two-wheeled," as well as a hostile mayor and police 
presence. 

One last point: Ms. McNeal says "Cyclists maintain every road 
is a bicycle path, and on Critical Mass rides, they have enough 
company to assert that position." I know of no participants who
maintain that "every road is a bicycle path." But probably all
participants would agree, as is stated in California law, that
bicyclists are entitled to the same rights and privileges, wherever
applicable, as any other vehicle operator. Until the law is changed,
this is a statement of fact, regardless of Ms. McNeal's or anyone
else's preferences. This means that, except where explicitly 
prohibited, cyclists have equal right to use the same roads as cars.
The fact that some roads don't safely accomodate both cars and
human-powered forms of transportation is a serious problem, and one
that must be rectified. One of the major obstacles to improving 
conditions in our cities is the irrational and unfair bias against
clean, affordable, and human-scale forms of transportation.

For a more positive view of San Diego Critical Mass, see my Critical
Mass web page at http://www.subrosa.org/CM.
 
Guy Berliner